Legacies of the Crimean War
1854
Joy Copland
SA Medical Heritage Society
May 2014
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Where on earth?
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimea
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean war - cause
Ottoman Empire – (Turkey) included the Holy Land (Israel);
France & Russia vied for authority of the Holy Land, and Ottomans occupying the
territory;
Disagreement escalated; peaceful negotiations failed…
Britain & France sided with Turkish Ottomans - war against Russia.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean war
1853: Turkey declares war on Russia;
1854: Britain & France declare war on Russia;
Troops from Britain, France, Kingdom
of Sardinia, Duchy of Nassau & Turkey fight Imperial Russian troops in the
Crimea;
Colossal loss of life (all nations): of 1 650 000 soldiers, 900 000 died;
Those who perished – many died from
disease rather than wounds.
Kingdom of Sardinia 1815 J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Lead-up to 1854
1815 Napoleonic wars end - France vs Britain;
1837 Somerset House – central UK General Registry for Births, Deaths &
Marriages;
1847: Florence & Parthenope Nightingale attend British Association for
Advancement of Science meeting;
Actuary (Neison) - counties with better
educated people - lower crime rates;
higher taxes to finance
public education.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean War – medical support
Military doctors - surgeons
Nurses
Florence Nightingale ~ 34 nurses, trained in Germany; religious orders
Hospital at Scutari in Turkey
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean theatre of war
To reach the hospital, wounded troops - sailed across the Black Sea in overcrowded transport ships
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Scutari
Coldstream Guards in front of a wall,
with a landing-stage behind.
Across the Bosphorus, is the Topkapi
Palace in the distance.
Camp of 3rd Grenadier Guards with the
barracks (later Barrack Hospital) in the
background
1854 Photographs of soldiers at Scutari by James Robertson, by courtesy of Keith Smith
http://www.florence-nightingale-avenging-angel.co.uk/scutari.htm J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Scutari
Barrack Hospital
Victoria Barracks
Military Hospital at Scutari. Florence Nightingale Museum http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/the-collection/biography.html
General Hospital
Sketch by F Nightingale
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean War
The Battle of the Alma (20 September 1854)
British & French fought Russian forces - Russians defeated.
Siege of Sevastopol (September 1854 –September 1855)
Sevastopol - Russian fleet. British, French, &
Turkish troops besieged – year: captured.
The Siege of Sevastopol. Franz Roubaud (1904)
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Siege of Sevastopol Crimean War
The Battle of Balaklava (25 October 1854)
. British, French, Turkish, & Russian armies: inconclusive. Russians suffered heavier losses.
Remembered for -
. Thin Red Line – battle formation;
. Charge of the Heavy Brigade
. Charge of the Light Brigade: futile advance under muddled and misinformed orders;
. Poem (by Tennyson) - describes bravery of cavalry under incompetent command;
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Balaclava
Looking towards Balaclava, Turkish camp in the distance to the right. Roger Fenton
http://www.allworldwars.com/Crimean-War-Photographs-by-Roger-Fenton-1855.html
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Balaclava
Encampment of the 71st Regiment at Balaclava commissariat camp,
tents and huts of British camps on hillside and valley at Balaklava. Roger Fenton
http://www.allworldwars.com/Crimean-War-Photographs-by-Roger-Fenton-1855.html
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean War
The Battle of Eupatoria (17 February 1855)
• Eupatoria, occupied by Turks: Russian forces attacked and repelled.
Sea of Azov naval campaign (25 May 1855 - 22 Nov 1855)
• British & French war ships attacked Russian ports - six months;
• Ports bombarded: allies unable to land;
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War A little guerrilla warfare…
Sea of Azov naval campaign
• In July 1855, an allied squadron - through Mius River to River Don;
• H.M.S. Jasper grounded - canny local fisherman repositioned buoys into shallow
waters;
• The Cossacks captured the
gunboat - blew it up.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean War
In military terms, the Crimean war - recognised in Britain by introduction of the
highest decoration for gallantry;
Unlike other medals, the Victoria Cross was awarded to officers and men without
distinction;
Victoria Crosses – made from a captured Russian bronze gun, seized at Sevastopol;
The cannon was probably Chinese.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Balaklava
Battle of Balaklava (25 October 1854)
standing defence - 93rd Highlanders
two cavalry charges
. Heavy Brigade
. Light brigade
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Battle of Balaclava 1854
The Thin Red Line: The 93rd Highlanders
http://www.britishbattles.com/crimean-war/balaclava.htm
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Thin lines…
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War The Charge of the Light Brigade
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Battle of Balaklava 1854
th 17 Lancers: Charge of the Light Brigade
http://www.britishbattles.com/crimean-war/balaclava.htm
View of the Charge of the Light Brigade from Russian
positions on the Fedioukine Hills.
http://www.britishbattles.com/crimean-war/balaclava.htm
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War The Charge of the Light Brigade
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death, Rode the six hundred.
"Forward the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!" he said. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
Ravine on Balaklava Plain with spent cannonballs
"Valley of the Shadow of Death"
photograph, Roger Fenton 1855
http://www.britishbattles.com/crimean-war/balaclava.htm
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Casualties
Charge of the Light Brigade
• 110 killed,
• 130 wounded,
• 58 captured,
loss 40%
Casualty return 22-26 Oct 54 (including Battle of Balaklava)
• 142 killed
• 199 wounded
• 381 horses killed
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Post - Battle of Balaklava
British army camp at Balaklava
Albumen silver print by "Robertson & Beato", 1855
Conditions of the sick and injured in Balaklava
tinted lithograph by William Simpson
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Hospital at Scutari
Florence Nightingale Museum
http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/the-collection/biography.html
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War The hospital at Scutari
On cesspool - contaminated the water & hospital building;
Throughout hallways, patients lay on stretchers - own excrement;
Rodents & bugs;
Basic supplies (bandages & soap) - increasingly scarce as ill & wounded increased;
Water – rationed;
More soldiers - dying from infectious diseases – (typhoid & cholera) than battle
injuries.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean War - mortality
Allied army – British, French, Turks
British troops: mortality
2,755 killed in action
2,019 died of wounds
16,323 died of disease
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Disease – pre Pasteur
William Farr coined the term Zymotic in 1842 for -
• epidemic,
• endemic, and
• contagious diseases
1. Air or water-borne
2. Contact/inoculation
3. Diet
4. Parasitic
Farr, Annual Reports 1842, 1856
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Florence Nightingale
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Florence Nightingale
Born 1820 – to William and Frances Nightingale;
Grandfather: Member of Parliament (46 years);
Father (Cambridge) supervised education - Latin, Greek, history, philosophy,
mathematics, modern languages & music;
surrounded by social change, liberal & reforming ideas;
Natural academic – travelled, wrote prolifically.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Florence Nightingale
1836: Germany, deaconess motherhouse, Kaiserswerth
1850: Florence Nightingale - student
Published booklet, anonymously; critique of women’s education;
1851 and 1854, visited hospitals - United Kingdom & Europe; collected information.
1853 Lady Superintendent - Institution for Sick Gentlewomen, Upper Harley Street in
West End;
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Florence Nightingale
At outbreak of Crimean War, (unprecedented) appointment to superintend a group of
nurses;
Sisters of Mercy - aseptic nursing techniques
First, placed nurses under doctors orders, and established a hospital laundry;
Improvements - upkeep of wards, new bedding, & clothing for soldiers, hospital diets;
Scutari - supervised nursing,
. wrote letters, instituted remittance money to families, provided reading rooms & games
for convalescents.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Florence Nightingale
Kept records - number of deaths, causes of death;
Britain, campaigned - full commission of enquiry & better living conditions for army;
prepared an report for the “Royal Commission on the Health of the Army”, military medical
education;
created graphs - demonstrate causes of deaths;
advocated statistics for decision making.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Plot of deaths over time
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War ‘Flower’/ Wedges chart
Preventible or Mitigable Zymotic Diseases
Deaths from wounds
Deaths from all other causes
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Florence Nightingale’s chart
F. Nightingale (830 pages):
“Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency
and Hospital Administration of the British Army”,
1858
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Crimean War mortality data
• relative proportions • no scale
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Sanitation
Dr Sutherland: Sanitary commission investigated Scutari, reported 1858;
Dr Hall, military, rebutted (42% to 2% death rate not due to improved sanitation);
Dr Sutherland rebutted;
Dr Hall rebutted;
Nightingale published 830p report –
Drs Hall & Sutherland “ganged-up” on her!
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Simon – supported anti-sanitation view - ‘…great mortality from [ ]
zymotic disease is practically unavoidable’.
1858 dispute with Simon - most important battle of the sanitary revolution, […] perhaps the
whole century, has not received much attention…
(H Small. Royal Statistical Society, London, 2010) J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Education
Education - every area of Nightingale’s life;
Educational methods - practical & reflect purpose;
1860: established St. Thomas' Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses -
Fund
Particular concern - effect of schooling on health of children;
1863, conducted statistical survey of 143 colonial schools -Australia, Canada, South
Africa & Ceylon;
Her concern: European educational methods were not suited to teaching native
populations.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Education
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War “Founder of modern nursing”
1887: 520 nurses had completed training; 42 Nightingale school trainees were hospital
matrons;
Nightingale - continuing education important;
Migrations of Nightingale nurses –
. Australia, Canada, India, Finland, Germany, Sweden & the USA
. network of Nightingale-system training schools.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War A realist’s view of the audience…
In a letter of Christmas Day 1857 to Sidney Herbert, after some niceties, Nightingale commented -
“… also the proof of the Appendix copy of it for your report.
In this form, printed Tables, and all in double columns I do
not think anyone will read it. None but scientific men ever
look into the Appendix of a Report. And this is for the vulgar public. The only good of having it in the Appendix
at all is for the sake of the last line on the cover of the coxcomb: “Reprinted from …”
. The 1857 “coxcomb” booklet referred to was published early in 1858.
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War In 2010…
One person can change the world, but it takes the world a long time to appreciate
it…
(H Small. Royal Statistical Society, London, 2010)
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War Legacies of the Crimean war
The thin red line, damning poetry, Victoria Cross
Data collection – health statistics in hospitals
Astute display of data for politicians
Use of sound data to inform good policy
Lobbying to achieve changes in policy
Practical nursing, development of nursing school
Notion of continuing professional education
Linking of health – education, nutrition & housing…
Public health - Determinants of health
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War References
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (1820–1910)
byAlex Attewell. PROSPECTS: the quarterly review of comparative education (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. xxviii, no. 1, March 1998,p. 153-66.
Florence Nightingale Museum
http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/the-collection/biography.html
Florence Nightingale’s statistical diagrams
H Small St. Thomas’s Hospital, 18th March 1998
Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War
http://understandinguncertainty.org/node/204
British Battles website
http://www.britishbattles.com/crimean-war/balaclava.htm
Roger Fenton photographs
http://www.allworldwars.com/Crimean-War-Photographs-by-Roger-Fenton-1855.html
Photographs by James Robertson,
http://www.florence-nightingale-avenging-angel.co.uk/scutari.htm
Florence Nightingale.
Lee Glendinning, The Guardian (3rd September, 2007)
Florence Nightingale’s Hockey Stick The Real Message of her Rose Diagram
H Small. Royal Statistical Society, London, 2010
Gallery of Data Visualization, York Universityhttp://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/
Data visualisation
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/health/health-sciences/the-joy-stats-the-lady-data-visualisation
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War The Charge of the Light Brigade
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
"Forward the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!" he said.
Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
Forward, the Light Brigade!" Was there a man dismay'd? Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd. Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of hell Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare, Flash'd as they turn'd in air Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army, while All the world wonder'd. Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke; Cossack and Russian Reel'd from the sabre-stroke Shatter'd and sunder'd. Then they rode back, but not, Not the six
hundred.
Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that
had fought so well Came thro' the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them, Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd. Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!
J Copland: Legacies of the Crimean War